Netflix (Finally) Understands You Don't Want to Share Ever
Source: Andy Fixmer

You can now link your Netflix and Facebook accounts without every friend on your social network finding out about your High School Musical obsession.

Netflix is rolling out new social features today that give the video service's subscribers more control over how much of their viewing they share over Facebook and with whom, a departure from the current experience of sharing everything.

By giving viewers more control, Netflix hopes more of their 50 million users worldwide will connect their accounts with Facebook.

        For Netflix, connecting with Facebook allows friends to recommend videos to one another.

For Netflix, connecting with Facebook allows friends to recommend videos to one another. That's a more compelling way to find something to watch than the algorithm recommendations from Netflix or randomly typing titles or actor names into the search bar, Cameron Johnson, the company's director of product innovation, said in a phone interview.

"For us, it's about trying to find a new social model that works for on demand television," Johnson said. "Most people already tell their friends about TV shows or movies they like, we're trying to make that experience seamless and quick within Netflix."

The new controls will first be available to viewers watching on PCs, Apple's mobile devices, web-connected TVs and video-game consoles including Xbox and PlayStation systems. Android-powered devices will be added in a couple months, Johnson said.

With the new controls, users who link their accounts would be able to recommend a TV show, for example Netflix's Orange is the New Black, after watching an episode. When the credits roll, a message will pop up asking if you would like to recommend the episode or the series to a friend. The viewer could select friends from Facebook in the box, type a brief message and hit send.



Netflix subscribers can recommend videos to select Facebook friends.

The recommendation will appear at the top of subscribers' Netflix home screens and in their Facebook Messenger, if they are logged on, or sent by e-mail through Facebook. The friend can reply, ignore or let their friend automatically know when they have watched the recommended show or movie.

"We're trying to emulate the way people talk in their real lives," Johnson said. "With linear TV, everyone watches big events at the same time. With on demand, people watch at their pace on their own screens. This is a more modern water cooler."



Netflix subscribers can opt to receive recommendations from Facebook friends.

Currently, less than a majority of Netflix subscribers in the U.S. link their accounts with Facebook, Johnson said. In Europe and Latin America, a higher percentage of users link with Facebook, he said.

"The U.S. is an interesting case because we built up a large membership base before we added Facebook options," Johnson said. "For a lot of U.S. members, it’s a late addition for them."

Johnson also said some users are concerned that linking with Facebook will result in overly aggressive, or spam-like, notices in newsfeeds. With the new controls, Netflix sharing can be done on an individual basis and never appear in a newsfeed, he said.

Friends are sorted by Facebook's so-called friend co-efficient. Facebook measures who you interact with the most, whose posts you click on the most, and those who you chat with the most ― and then surfaces those people at the top of the list.

"It's a good predictor of who you want to interact with," Johnson said. "Over time your list becomes the people you most want to interact with. If you have a few friends frequently recommending back an forth, they will just rotate to the front of your list."